Search results
1 – 10 of over 8000Philip Baron and Anne Catherine Baron
When comparing pre-school teachers with university lecturers, society generally acknowledges the latter as a highly skilled professional, while the former does not achieve such…
Abstract
Purpose
When comparing pre-school teachers with university lecturers, society generally acknowledges the latter as a highly skilled professional, while the former does not achieve such admiration or financial reward. Upon studying this status quo, the authors introduce ethically resilient teaching as a set of seven + one common qualities that are shared by both levels of educators. The purpose of this paper is to present these qualities, describing how they relate to the function of teaching and learning with the aim of bridging the perceived gap between these two levels of educators.
Design/methodology/approach
Over several years, the authors observed patterns in the ideas and comments surrounding ethically resilient teaching that have arisen in teacher training sessions in both the pre-school and university domains. Through these reflexive communal conversational training sessions, attributes that are commonly associated with ethics and resilience in teaching and learning were identified. These attributes were then clustered into seven groups or qualities which represent the authors (and their participants’) compilation of ethically resilient teachers.
Findings
Ethically resilient teachers are not specific to a single educational level with there being considerable overlap in the qualities that describe ethically resilient teaching in both the pre-school and university levels.
Research limitations/implications
The study considers two educational contexts: pre-schooling and tertiary education only. The outcomes arise from an urbanised South African multicultural context.
Practical implications
The qualities (seven + one) that describe ethically resilient teachers may be used as predictors for ethical resilience in teaching in both the pre-school and university levels.
Social implications
There are many ethical teachers who leave the vocation as they are not resilient. There are many resilient teachers who would not be labelled as ethical. It is proposed that ethics should be a qualifier to the term resilience in terms of teaching and learning for highly effective sustainable pedagogy.
Originality/value
The topic of ethically resilient teaching has not been found in the literature. The authors have proposed that an ethically resilient teacher is one who for various reasons, has found a strategy for continuing in a self-fulfilling vocation as a teacher in which his or her students achieve their goals in a sustainable manner. These teachers are steadfast, hardy and committed, even in the face of turbulence and are deeply concerned with their students’ results and experiences within the classroom.
Details
Keywords
Highlights the increasing pressure that British higher education institutions (HEIs) are coming under to provide basic training in tertiary‐level teaching for their academic staff…
Abstract
Highlights the increasing pressure that British higher education institutions (HEIs) are coming under to provide basic training in tertiary‐level teaching for their academic staff as a result of recommendations made in recent major reports. Identifies some of the (often conflicting) demands and constraints that HEIs are generally confronted with in developing and running such programmes, e.g. striking a balance between competence‐based training and academic education, avoiding making unreasonable time demands on either trainees or trainers, and reconciling the internal requirements of the institution with external pressures and constraints. Examines these various issues in some detail, and shows how they have been resolved within Scotland’s Robert Gordon University, which has been running a highly successful postgraduate course in tertiary‐level teaching for its staff since 1989.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to focus on a course in entrepreneurship education for students studying for a Masters in Educational Sciences at a Finnish university. The course was…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on a course in entrepreneurship education for students studying for a Masters in Educational Sciences at a Finnish university. The course was structured around the principles of constructive alignment and aimed to move beyond reflection on entrepreneurship towards action
Design/methodology/approach
The course was delivered in alignment with intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and assessment. Along with lectures, group work and peer-review activities, students prepared a career development plan as the course progressed, undertook a homework assignment, wrote a reflective journal, and sat the GET2 test twice.
Findings
Quantitative and qualitative analysis suggests that students developed more enterprising attitudes as result of participating in the course. This paper makes an argument in favour of entrepreneurship as a subject for all, a transformative experience capable of shaping the mindset in all who participate.
Originality/value
This paper shows how a course on entrepreneurial education based on a “through” approach can be taught at a tertiary level in places other than economics faculties or business schools. Most tertiary courses rely on “about” and “for” approaches to entrepreneurial education, are teacher-centred, and follow a behaviouristic or cognitive learning paradigm of knowledge transmission, as opposed to the student-centred constructivist approach deployed and described here.
Details
Keywords
Meloni M. Muir, Helen Drury, Garth Tarr and Fiona White
The authors report on a study that examined how academics in two faculties (Business and Science) at a large, research-focused university use information about student diversity…
Abstract
The authors report on a study that examined how academics in two faculties (Business and Science) at a large, research-focused university use information about student diversity to inform their teaching. Ninety-nine Science academics completed an online survey regarding their knowledge of their student cohort’s demographic, cultural, language, and educational backgrounds at the beginning of semester. They then received a concise two-page, course-specific document, Knowing Your Students (KYS) report, summarizing aspects of their students’ diversity. At the end of the semester, 44 of the same staff completed a second survey with open-ended questions regarding how they used the report information in their teaching and curriculum design. The report was new to Science while Business academics had received the reports for three years. To compare Science with Business, Business academics also completed the second survey. Academics across both faculties had a very positive response to the reports and engaged with the information provided. Provision of the report to Science academics brought their self-assessed knowledge of their student cohort’s diversity to a level comparable with that of Business. This chapter shares how KYS reports improved academics’ knowledge of student diversity, and challenged them to respond with suitable curriculum and pedagogical changes.
Details
Keywords
Erwin Maria Gierlinger, Harald Spann and Thomas Wagner
The purpose of this paper is to scrutinise the potentials and challenges of variation theory when adopting learning study in Austrian initial EFL (English as a Foreign Language…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to scrutinise the potentials and challenges of variation theory when adopting learning study in Austrian initial EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher education.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a hermeneutic and epistemological approach, projects, and publications employing variation theory in the context of EFL are critically evaluated.
Findings
Variation theory and learning study turn out to have great potential for EFL teaching and learning in Austria. However, three critical issues need further conceptual and empirical research before new learning cycles can be implemented and evaluated: the object of learning, the SLA-variation theory interface, and the roles of variation theory on different educational levels.
Originality/value
By identifying and discussing important critical issues within the current practice of variation-theory-oriented EFL teaching, this study could lead to further theoretical and empirical deliberations in various areas of modern language teaching. This in turn could help pave the way for both the development of theoretical underpinning and methodological refinement, ultimately fostering international co-operations in implementing learning cycles.
Details
Keywords
– The purpose of this paper is to provide some thoughts following on from reading: “Experiential learning: changing student attitudes towards learning disability”.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide some thoughts following on from reading: “Experiential learning: changing student attitudes towards learning disability”.
Design/methodology/approach
This commentary outlines some considerations for the continued development of using service users in tertiary education as educators.
Findings
The literature is not clear on the involvement of people with more profound and multiple learning disabilities, or for those who do not use much spoken language in tertiary level teaching.
Originality/value
A further cultural shift is needed to ensure that all people with learning disabilities regardless of their communication style have the opportunity to share their experiences within a teaching and learning context.
Details
Keywords
B. Mythiri, S. Anjana Krishna and V.K. Karthika
This paper investigated the possibilities of implementing inclusive education in the tertiary-level language classrooms and suggests new teaching methodologies adhering to the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigated the possibilities of implementing inclusive education in the tertiary-level language classrooms and suggests new teaching methodologies adhering to the guidelines of multicultural education (MCE) framework. It explored how Indian teachers fostered social inclusivity in ESP (English for Specific Purposes) classrooms and documented the methods used by the language teachers to sustain a socially inclusive environment in the classroom.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study undertaken with 17 faculty members using online interviews and surveys as tools revealed the challenges faced by the teachers.
Findings
The results have implications towards teacher training as there is a clear dearth of teacher strategies to foster an equitable and inclusive learning environment inside the classroom.
Social implications
Classrooms are the sources of values and perspectives, and teachers are responsible for providing equal opportunities to students who are otherwise marginalised in society.
Originality/value
Inclusive education aims at providing equal opportunities to people despite the differences in terms of race, class, caste, region, religion, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and disabilities. India being a multilingual and multicultural country, inculcating values in students to enable them to reflect beyond these differences becomes important.
Details
Keywords
Proposes a model which lecturers in higher education can adopt to evaluate their current state of professional standing and stimulate their developmental growth. Currently, there…
Abstract
Proposes a model which lecturers in higher education can adopt to evaluate their current state of professional standing and stimulate their developmental growth. Currently, there is greater awareness in many professional groups, especially those in higher education, of the need to engage in critical self‐reflection, quality assurance and the enhancement of educational services. Many are concerned about the threat of deprofessionalization. Introduces the continuous professional development model and describes the significant contributions it can make to staff development programmes, as well as in sensitizing and educating an educational institute’s clients to appreciate fully the services they receive.
Details
Keywords
Katrin Kohl, Charles Hopkins, Matthias Barth, Gerd Michelsen, Jana Dlouhá, Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, Zainal Abidin Bin Sanusi and Isabel Toman
Higher education and its leadership are not yet using their potential impact for a sustainable future. This paper aims to focus on UN developments and the long history of…
Abstract
Purpose
Higher education and its leadership are not yet using their potential impact for a sustainable future. This paper aims to focus on UN developments and the long history of university involvement in sustainability might create more interest and understanding that sustainably oriented universities are actually possible and a much stronger role for higher education is needed when nations are discussing their future.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature review with a focus on international treaties and declarations on the UN level and international university networks, literature review of the background and potential of the whole-institution approach and the need/suggestions for further research, also to measure advancement.
Findings
History shows a strong engagement of higher education with sustainability from its beginnings. There have been strong calls/offers from within university networks to take a crucial role in moving towards sustainable development that involves more than teaching about sustainability. The international community calls for higher education to be involved in policymaking rather than simply implementation, have been limited and the full potential of higher education institutions using all opportunities such as being living labs for sustainability has not as yet been realized. Currently, calls for engagement are often still limited to training and providing research when scientific evidence is wanted.
Research limitations/implications
Literature review focused on UN level treaties/declarations English- and German-language review national developments limited to samples of members of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 subcluster in the Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development (HESD) Global Cluster by the International Association of Universities (IAU).
Practical implications
Guidance for university leaders and other stakeholders to become aware of and consider a whole-institution approach. Practitioner relevance as countries is encouraged to embed UN recommendations, treaties and declarations. Defining opportunities for further research. Presenting the HESD Cluster by the IAU as a sample for new approaches of higher education to interact with the SDGs.
Social implications
Strengthening the role of higher education in the pursuit of a better future would focus on science and research as a neutral basis for decision-making and policy development. Sustainability embedded in all streams of university can help universities to be a practical example of the possibilities of sustainability at work.
Originality/value
Composition of authors with UN background and involvement. Focus on UN treaties/declarations and guidance for academics and practitioners in leadership on adopted UN and other international documents. Summarizing the background of the whole-institution approach as a genuine development over time but including limitations and implications for future roles for higher education leadership. IAU SDG 4 Subcluster is unique in its own approach and with its connections to a global network of higher education institutions and UNESCO.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to present a new professional development framework (EntreCompEdu) that identifies the competencies educators need to promote entrepreneurial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a new professional development framework (EntreCompEdu) that identifies the competencies educators need to promote entrepreneurial education in primary, secondary and vocational settings.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper explores the relationships between the framework's various constructs to articulate its rationale and value. Its design was informed by literature review and critical feedback from an advisory group of European and national policymakers, university staff, teachers and education consultants. It is currently in a pilot stage.
Findings
The paper proposes a new model in the field resting on six pedagogical principles. These are translated into five areas of competence: entrepreneurial knowledge and understanding, planning and organization, teaching and training, assessment, and professional learning.
Research limitations/implications
This paper only describes the conceptual thinking and contents of EntreCompEdu based on a limited literature review. Empirical research is necessary to assess the impact of EntreCompEdu on teaching. There are implications for building a network to support educators' professional development.
Practical implications
EntreCompEdu and its training materials offer educators structure and guidance to develop their competences. These are available in open access format, via https://www.entrecompedu.eu. Participants will have access to a bank of effective teaching practices and support network across Europe.
Social implications
Collaboration is essential to effective entrepreneurial education, with EntreCompEdu facilitating a support network across Europe.
Originality/value
EntreCompEdu is an original response to a policy problem, namely the need for a professional development framework to support the implementation of EntreComp. It is timely given calls to pay further attention to teachers' professional development and widen the appeal of entrepreneurial education.
Details